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Dragon based bullet hell game
page 2

@Aesica Do you think a drop on percentage of enemies killed would work? Such as after killing every 10% of enemies in a level, the powerup will drop?
And with the powerup itself, should they stack or replace each other? So you could end up having a very lucky streak and get ten strength powerups, or end up with ten spread and have a little struggle? Or would it be better for just different set powerups?

Are they supposed to be permanent powerups? If so, how permanent? If the player can replay levels **and** collect permanent, stackable powerups, they could just replay level 1 a bunch to grind up to whatever max you have set. Keep the permanent stuff in a shop or talent tree.
With temporary powerups, I’d avoid random drops like that. Period. As mentioned, a lucky string of powerups can actually make or break a level in some cases. Randomized powerup drops are something I seriously regret doing in my last game. If you want randomized powerups, that’s ultimately up to you, but consider having them spawn at certain points specifically, like in little capsules the player needs to blast open. That way, you’ll have control over where powerups are dropped and can avoid the problem of “yaay, I beat the level because 3 health refills, a shield, and a temporary weapon boost all dropped right before the boss!”

No, they’re definitely not permanent, they’re only for that one level.
I was also thinking of having just weapon upgrades drop, possibly up to a max of five of each one. So you aren’t stuck with just spread or rate of fire. The permanent powerups will stick to the skill tree, which I guess I could have a reset button for so you get to reallocate their skill points, or even just have a blank slate if they decide they want more of a challenge.
Health and Shield would probably return over time as long as you weren’t getting hit, though there may be small definite health boosts after particularly difficult sections to collect.

Really consider making your “until end of level” weapon powerups part of a skill tree or upgrade shop. If you want temporary weapon boosts, bullet heaven does it pretty well. In that game, there are temporary weapon powerups that give you a few seconds of extra firepower before wearing off, but your primary method of upgrading your weapons is the game’s upgrade shop.
If you have your weapon powerups last until the end of the level AND possibly even stack, you’re going to have your players be like “hell yeah, I’m getting stronger! Now for the next level! Hey wait…I’m weak again? WTF M8?!”

Aesica, I’ve seen a game with powerups that last a level, stack (also cap) and drop pretty often. It’s still playable and enjoyable, so this is still a viable solution for powerups. I’d say it’ll be nice to combine these approaches, a powerup that adds extra attacks/power temporarily and a powerup that adds to each attack’s damage, semi-permanent and stackable.

I got it. A good Idea for your game.
Have your characters be baby dragons, that have a house party while ‘Dad’ is away on a “business trip”.
And by throwing a house party I really mean burninate the countryside, and lay waste to the kingdoms.
Call it “Whelps!”
The story pretty much writes itself at this point, Leaving you free to work on game mechanics.

> *Originally posted by **[FlashGrenade](/forums/4/topics/342482?page=2#posts-7196641):***
>
> I got it. A good Idea for your game.
>
> Have your characters be baby dragons, that have a house party while ‘Dad’ is away on a “business trip”.
> And by throwing a house party I really mean burninate the countryside, and lay waste to the kingdoms.
> Call it “Whelps!”
> The story pretty much writes itself at this point, Leaving you free to work on game mechanics.
That is actually a really good idea.

> *Originally posted by **[vesperbot](/forums/4/topics/342482?page=2#posts-7185511):***
>
> Aesica, I’ve seen a game with powerups that last a level, stack (also cap) and drop pretty often. It’s still playable and enjoyable, so this is still a viable solution for powerups. I’d say it’ll be nice to combine these approaches, a powerup that adds extra attacks/power temporarily and a powerup that adds to each attack’s damage, semi-permanent and stackable.
Do you remember the name of it? I’d be curious to see the implementation.

[Band of Heroes](http://www.kongregate.com/games/IriySoft/band-of-heroes) was like that and, frankly, having to recollect all the upgrades every level got tiresome real quickly. At least there was a second set of (permanent) upgrades one could purchase between levels but the system was backwards: The permanent upgrades were minor bonuses and abilities while the single-level upgrades directly affected firepower in a major way. And since you couldn’t pick which upgrades you’d collect first a bad draw could mean you’d get your ass handed out to you for most of the level, in the later ones at least. Once you maxed out you’d generally be fine.
All in all I’m not a fan of the principle of systematically erasing the player’s progress and telling them to start over. Not accomplishing anything permanent tends to make them question why they’re playing your game, and by and large you don’t want that.

For the collecting mini-upgrades during the actual levels, how about they’re all small upgrades which, when enough are collected, culminate in a full upgrade. So a certain number of enemies will drop one mini-upgrade which will enhance you permanently, but getting enough of those mini upgrades earn a larger one? For example if you start of with a damage output of 10 per hit (Just a random number, I’ve not figured any of this out yet), then you collect one mini power upgrade, it permanently goes to 11. Then you collect ten and it goes up an extra amount to 25 rather than 20 and a similar thing happening to recharge speed etc. Of course then each level would have to have only a set amount of each of these.